Comments on: Engineers Are From Mars, Media Moguls Are From Venus

By: Ian Schafer

Ian Schafer — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:53:38 +0000

You know where this philosophy isn’t applied, but should be? Advertising agencies.

Historically, “creatives” run creative agencies. Media execs run media agencies.

The problem is, the new world order is demanding that those agencies be one in the same. The reason? Technology. The “d” in allthingsd.

That’s why the agency of the future must be run by individuals that are technologists. Future innovation depends on that.

It used to be that agencies got to determine what the (TV) media landscape looked like, because they controlled the spending.

With the web, it feels that agencies are not only not in control, they are practically helpless. The entire industry would be better off if agencies and publishers/web properties could communicate at the same level. That’s when real innovation will happen, and it’s when the real revenue potential will be realized.

By: craig forman

craig forman — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:35:20 +0000

Excellent point about the clash of operating cultures, Kara, but an interesting “hole-in-the-doughnut” angle is where this gap is being bridged by a handful of business leaders.

Consider Bill Harris, a super-successful senior media exec at TIME Inc. (and for Mort Zuckerman) who then goes on to lead Intuit and help start PayPal and many other startups…(full disclosure: Bill was on the board of my startup and is on the board of EarthLink, where I am an exec.) Or consider Jake Weinbaum, who deeply understands these worlds.

No doubt about the cultures being very different, but there is an emerging cadre of fellow travelers who now have been in the trenches of media/internet/technology/telecom convergence for a decade or more and successfully have developed skills to bridge this still-large divide.

Excellent overall post, though. All too true.